Be the Most Handsome Beau in Town – Rock Your Bow Tie

A bow tie can be an intimidating accessory, but fear not my devilishly handsome friends! You too have a chance to look more fly than the latest hipster on the coffee corner and classier than the vapid D.C. politician wearing a blue tie with red insignias, without blowing your budget. New waves of creative entrepreneurs are in town and are changing the D.C. fashion scene one “butterfly” bow tie at a time. These two local companies focus on men’s fashion accessories and cater to every style – and the looks aren’t just for men – a number of women are cinching their collars.

Knot by TIFFA is a handmade men’s accessories company based out of Silver Spring, Maryland. Tiffa, owner of the company, started the company after having to make a bow tie for her now business partner, Cory Thompson. With a background in design, Tiffa began developing her prints to offer a fresh take on bow ties and menswear. The bow tie collections are inspired by a curated playlist of seasonally themed songs. The playlists inspire each eclectic tie and pocket square that are named after a song in the playlist. Knot by TIFFA will launch its Spring Collection: The Mirrorball in April. This collection features music from and inspired by the disco era. It will be a 20-piece collection featuring bow ties, neckties, and pocket squares, the largest collection from knot by TIFFA to date. And, while the company becomes the next strut for the peacock revolution, Knot by TIFFA also focuses heavily on company ideals by staying true to social responsibility and sustainability in the apparel supply chain. Tiffa wants to ensure as the company grows that they have a positive influence the fashion scene.

Bull + Moose is a veteran owned company, cleverly providing luxury quality neckwear at a fair price point. The Bull + Moose look is a mix of classic style with a modern twist to include anything from military camouflage to narwhal patterns. Each tie is handcrafted using only the finest silks, wools, linens and cottons and the products are also more durable, standing up to the toughest wear. Partnering with the ladies from ManServants, Bull + Moose provides all of their tie wear. B+M also proudly sponsors Got Your 6, which empowers veterans for their leadership in civic roles. If you aren’t sporting their ties yet, they have a handsome floral pattern that both men and women can wear just in time for spring.

If you’re still not convinced that you should be wearing a bow tie – let’s just simply provide you some basic tools to get started. With the help of a few of our Internet friends, you can quickly get up to speed on the top bow tie styles and swirl your cocktail just as confidently as that maverick over in the corner of the bar. You simply need some basics. The bow tie morphed out of an interesting history of 17th century Croatian Mercenaries and is usually considered more regal than a standard neck tie, but I digress… bow ties can come with three different “ties”:1) the Self-tie, 2) the “pre-tied” bow tie, and 3) the clip-on. Thanks to our friends over at The Gentlemanual, they provide explicit directions on how to tie your bow to the style of your preference – anything from a “big butterfly” to a “slim tie”, all to suit your personality and proportions. So, unless your auditioning for a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cover band or working for an over-priced steak-house to get you through your first D.C. internship on the Hill – lose the oversized neck tie and freshen up with a bow tie from these local companies – for your best Spring ever.

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Rather than pander to the purists or create music for DJs alone, Daniel Goldstein aka Lane 8 has always tread his own, distinctive path -- perhaps best summed up by

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Rather than pander to the purists or create music for DJs alone, Daniel Goldstein aka Lane 8 has always tread his own, distinctive path — perhaps best summed up by his phones-free event and label concept This Never Happened.

The concept is a simple one: remove all phones and cameras from the event, get back to connecting with the music and the people around you. And it is one that has been embraced with passion by Lane 8’s dedicated fanbase and the dance community at large. With his most recent This Never Happened tours including sold-out shows at Warsaw in New York, The Fonda in LA, and Zoo Project in Sydney, the This Never Happened message is being spread far and wide.

In tandem with the events, Daniel’s output on the TNH label has stood out for its integrity and artistry whether on emotional epics like “Fingerprint” or quirky upbeat groovers such as “With Me.” Always defined by a melodic touch, TNH is the culmination of a steady, assured rise over recent years.

After blowing up in the blogosphere with a series of Soundcloud-driven Hype Machine #1s around 2014, Lane 8 rose to wider prominence through a relationship with the tastemaking Anjunadeep label and his critically acclaimed 2015 album “Rise.”

Returning to the label with the Kidnap Kid collaboration “Aba,” 2017 will also see a steady stream of music on This Never Happened and more TNH tours the world over.

Alongside his own productions, his remixes have almost become as sought after as his originals with reworks of Maribou State’s Wallflower and ODESZA’s “Bloom.” More recently he has given RUFUS’s leftfield pop gem “Innerbloom” and Deadmau5’s iconic “Strobe” his own unique touch.

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There’s a great scene in The Last Waltz – the documentary about The Band’s final concert – where director Martin Scorsese is discussing music with drummer/singer/mandolin player Levon Helm. Helm

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There’s a great scene in The Last Waltz – the documentary about The Band’s final concert – where director Martin Scorsese is discussing music with drummer/singer/mandolin player Levon Helm. Helm says, “If it mixes with rhythm, and if it dances, then you’ve got a great combination of all those different kinds of music: country, bluegrass, blues music, show music…”

To which Scorsese, the inquisitive interviewer, asks, “What’s it called, then?”

“Rock & roll!”

Clearly looking for a more specific answer, but realizing that he isn’t going to get one, Marty laughs. “Rock & roll…”

Well, that’s the way it is sometimes: musicians play music, and don’t necessarily worry about where it gets filed. It’s the writers, record labels, managers, etc., who tend to fret about what “kind” of music it is.And like The Band, the members of Railroad Earth aren’t losing sleep about what “kind” of music they play – they just play it. When they started out in 2001, they were a bunch of guys interested in playing acoustic instruments together. As Railroad Earth violin/vocalist Tim Carbone recalls, “All of us had been playing in various projects for years, and many of us had played together in different projects. But this time, we found ourselves all available at the same time.”

Songwriter/lead vocalist Todd Sheaffer continues, “When we started, we only loosely had the idea of getting together and playing some music. It started that informally; just getting together and doing some picking and playing. Over a couple of month period, we started working on some original songs, as well as playing some covers that we thought would be fun to play.”

Shortly thereafter, they took five songs from their budding repertoire into a studio and knocked out a demo in just two days. Their soon-to-be manager sent that demo to a few festivals, and – to the band’s surprise – they were booked at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival before they’d even played their first gig. This prompted them to quickly go in and record five more songs; the ten combined tracks of which made up their debut album, “The Black Bear Sessions.”

That was the beginning of Railroad Earth’s journey: since those early days, they’ve gone on to release five more critically acclaimed studio albums and one hugely popular live one called, “Elko.” They’ve also amassed a huge and loyal fanbase who turn up to support them in every corner of the country, and often take advantage of the band’s liberal taping and photo policy. But Railroad Earth bristle at the notion of being lumped into any one “scene.” Not out of animosity for any other artists: it’s just that they don’t find the labels very useful. As Carbone points out, “We use unique acoustic instrumentation, but we’re definitely not a bluegrass or country band, which sometimes leaves music writers confused as to how to categorize us. We’re essentially playing rock on acoustic instruments.”

Ultimately, Railroad Earth’s music is driven by the remarkable songs of front-man, Todd Sheaffer, and is delivered with seamless arrangements and superb musicianship courtesy of all six band members. As mandolin/bouzouki player John Skehan points out, “Our M.O. has always been that we can improvise all day long, but we only do it in service to the song. There are a lot of songs that, when we play them live, we adhere to the arrangement from the record. And other songs, in the nature and the spirit of the song, everyone knows we can kind of take flight on them.” Sheaffer continues: “The songs are our focus, our focal point; it all starts right there. Anything else just comments on the songs and gives them color. Some songs are more open than others. They ‘want’ to be approached that way – where we can explore and trade musical ideas and open them up to different territories. But sometimes it is what the song is about.”

So: they can jam with the best of them and they have some bluegrass influences, but they use drums and amplifiers (somewhat taboo in the bluegrass world). What kind of music is it then? Mandolin/vocalist John Skehan offers this semi-descriptive term: “I always describe it as a string band, but an amplified string band with drums.” Tim Carbone takes a swing: “We’re a Country & Eastern band! ” Todd Sheaffer offers “A souped-up string band? I don’t know. I’m not good at this.” Or, as a great drummer/singer/mandolin player with an appreciation for Americana once said: “Rock & roll!”

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With its title “the green laurel” taken from a 1584 book of madrigals, this program explores the growth of Italian musical style from Renaissance to Baroque, including virtuoso instrumental versions

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Overview
With its title “the green laurel” taken from a 1584 book of madrigals, this program explores the growth of Italian musical style from Renaissance to Baroque, including virtuoso instrumental versions of madrigals and the songs themselves, as well as the new monodies of Monteverdi, Francesca Caccini, and other 17th-century luminaries. With violin, viol, lute, and soprano Jolle Greenleaf and additional special guests from Italy—instrumentalists Marcello Mazzetti and LivioTicli from the Palma Choralis Ensemble, based in Brescia in the Lombardi region of northern Italy.

Folger Consort gratefully acknowledges the kind support of our sponsors. For a full list of Consort sponsors, please visit our Sponsors page.

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Andy Borowitz is a New York Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. In 2001, he created The Borowitz Report, a satirical

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Andy Borowitz is a New York Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. In 2001, he created The Borowitz Report, a satirical news column that has millions of readers around the world, for which he won the first-ever National Press Club award for humor. The Borowitz Report was acquired by The New Yorker in 2012.

Before creating The Borowitz Report, he created the classic sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” winning the NAACP Image Award and launching the acting career of Will Smith. He has many other Hollywood credits, including the Oscar-nominated film “Pleasantville.”

His most recent books have both been bestsellers: “The 50 Funniest American Writers,” which became the first title in the history of the Library of America to make the Times best-seller list; and a memoir, “An Unexpected Twist,” a No. 1 best-seller, which Amazon named the Best Kindle Single of the Year.

His work is widely shared on social media: his Twitter feed, @BorowitzReport, has more than half a million followers and was voted the best Twitter feed in a poll by Time; his Facebook feed has over eight hundred thousand followers; and his most recent comedy video received over one million views on YouTube in its first week alone.

As a comedian, he has performed sold-out shows around the world and has made countless television and radio appearances, on National Public Radio, VH1, and Comedy Central, among other places. He has been called a “Swiftian satirist” (the Wall Street Journal), “America’s satire king” (the Daily Beast), “the funniest human on Twitter” (the Times), and “one of the funniest people in America” (CBS News’ ”Sunday Morning”).